'Crippled banks'

It is certainly progress, indeed a striking change in performance, though the favourable comparison does partly reflect the slowdown that has hit the eurozone as a whole in the last year.

It is also important to recall how much damage the Greek economy has suffered. It is still about 24% smaller than before the crisis.

Unemployment has come down markedly, including for young people. But it still very high: 18.5% for the adult population as a whole and close to 40% for the young.

The IMF says the reform work is incomplete and the economy remains vulnerable.

A particular concern is the banks which still have high levels of loans where payments are not up to date.

Mr Dohlman describes the banks as "crippled" by this problem. That is reflected in the fact that private sector credit continues to decline.

He also says more work is needed on labour market reform so that employers can respond more easily to changing conditions.

Reforms on competition also continue to lag, he says.

A meeting of eurozone finance ministers this week agreed that Greece needs to do more.

They discussed whether to go ahead with some debt relief measures that had already been agreed in principle but subject to the Greek government completing agreed reforms.

They decided to wait until Greece had made more progress, though the European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici expressed confidence that the debt relief measures, worth almost a billion euros, could be decided by the next meeting in April at the latest.